Ontario

He was the first black member of Parliament and the first black minister in the federal Cabinet. Lincoln Alexander has been appointed Ontario's next lieutenant governor by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. He will succeed John B. Aird who will step down on Sunday after five years. At a news conference Alexander, 63, who has been chairman of the Ontario Workers' Compensation Board since 1980, described himself as ''very excited, elated and nervous.'' He looked annoyed when a reporter asked him if he owed his appointment to being black or to being a member of the Conservative Party.

In the second game of his first professional hockey season, Michael Catenacci took a shot to his head. Catenacci had sustained a concussion while playing for Duesseldorf EG in Germany. He did not return for the rest of the 2012-13 season. And worse, he was alone. In a foreign country. On another continent. "It was a helpless feeling," said his father, Enzo. "Our concern was that he was so far away, we couldn't reach out and be there beside him. "As time went on, it became even more serious.

TORONTO - Bowing to fierce criticism, the Ontario government announced Thursday that it will cancel its permit allowing a company to export Lake Superior water to Asia. Detractors in Canada and the United States said Ontario-based Nova Group's proposed export could set a precedent encouraging other firms to cut even larger deals to export Great Lakes water.

The city of Los Angeles should continue negotiating with government officials from the Inland Empire to determine if there is a way to transfer control of L.A./Ontario International Airport to them, a new report recommended Friday. The report by Miguel Santana, the chief administrative officer for Los Angeles, also concluded that a December 2011 proposal by Ontario municipal officials to take over the struggling airport should be declined. Researchers said that the deal could result in the illegal diversion of $50 million in airport revenue to the city, instead of Los Angeles World Airports, which operates Ontario, Los Angeles International Airport and Van Nuys Airport.

Thousands of doctors began a two-day strike in Canada's most populous province Thursday, closing offices and canceling non-emergency surgery in a showdown over a proposed law to limit fees, organizers said.The Ontario Medical Association, representing 17,000 physicians, said it did not know right away how many doctors were taking part in the protest but it believed there were thousands.A spokesman said, ''We expect good, solid support across the province.''The association urged its members to strike to protest a proposed provincial law that would levy fines up to $10,000 on doctors who charge more than fees set under public health insurance.

TORONTO - Up to 10,000 Canadian homes were without electricity on Sunday after thunderstorms hit southern Ontario, northern Michigan and New York overnight. Among the areas hardest hit on Saturday night were Ontario's scenic vacation areas where city dwellers traditionally retreat to lakeside summer homes. No deaths were reported, but some property was damaged.

Snow-covered highways went unplowed and unrest spread in understaffed prisons as the first-ever strike by Ontario civil servants reached full strength Wednesday. About 54,000 workers have walked out since the strike started Monday, protesting the conservative government's plans to cut at least 13,000 jobs. Picket lines already were set up at jails, psychiatric hospitals and offices throughout Ontario, Canada's most populous province. On Wednesday picketing was extended to the provincial legislature in Toronto, and strikers jeered Cabinet ministers arriving for work.

Ontario's Conservative government said Tuesday it would press ahead with plans to merge Toronto with five of its suburbs, even though voters overwhelmingly rejected the plan. In an unusual poll, 76 percent of voters in the six communities voted against the merger that would create a city of 2.4 million people. Results were tallied late Monday after one of Toronto's most impassioned political campaigns in decades.

Defeated in his attempts to mothball Lake County's incinerator, Commissioner Richard Swartz is again speaking against the concept, this time at a symposium next week in Orillia, Ontario. Opponents of a proposed $500 million incinerator in Orillia asked him to be one of their four speakers at a two-day gathering north of Toronto. Eight speakers are to debate the idea of burning trash to produce electricity.

Hundreds of Native Americans from Canada and the United States gathered at an occupied military base Monday for the funeral of a protester killed during a confrontation with police last week. Anthony Dudley George, 38, was shot dead Wednesday night during a confrontation between police and members of a rebel group of Chippewas at Ipperwash Provincial Park. The protesters say the area, on the shores of Lake Huron, is the site of a sacred burial ground. Ontario authorities say there is no evidence to support the claim.

A 66-year-old sex offender from St. Augustine has been charged with transporting child pornography from Florida to Canada, federal officials announced today. Charles Lee Gorish sent a package with two micro SD media cards containing numerous images of child pornography to someone in Ontario, a federal complaint alleges. Canadian officials intercepted the package and alerted the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office, the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During an interview with authorities, Gorish admitted that he obtained acquired the files on the SD cards of sexually explicit images of boys from the Internet over several years.

Travelers at Ontario International Airport will have up to two hours of free access to the airport's Wi-Fi signal, according to a statement from the airport. Anyone in the airport's Terminals 2 and 4 can sign onto the free Wi-Fi by launching an Internet browser on their laptop, phone or tablet, accepting the terms and conditions and input an e-mail address and cell phone number so a password can be sent via text message or e-mail. To sign in, enter the e-mail address and the new password.

AGAWA CANYON, Ontario, Canada — There are no animals, no birds, not one moving creature, except for a man on a lake who raises his hand as we pass. It is overcast. Sky the color of cotton wool muffles the harsh rocky landscape; the snow and hills blend into a black-and-white panorama dotted with the drab loden of the pines. Snow falls in fits and starts. It is already more than 2 feet deep. Let spring come somewhere else; winter has settled here, as always. Last year, the Agawa Canyon Snow Train did not run. This year, it has $11 million worth of new equipment, upgraded coaches and splendid new burgundy paint.

A legal battle that began 15 years ago over bingo halls in the Orlando area now has a major bill waiting for Florida taxpayers: more than $6 million. And the company that is owed the millions — Bradenton Group Inc. of Ontario — wants the state to pay up. The Attorney General's Office went after Bradenton, a former bingo-hall operator, in 1995 using Florida's racketeering law. Bradenton no longer owns bingo halls in Florida. But the Florida Supreme Court later ruled that people who own and run commercial bingo halls cannot be sued by the state under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. And so, a temporary injunction against Bradenton was improper.

OTTAWA -- Moving to pre-empt a possible shift of auto production to the United States, the governments of Canada and its Ontario province offered the industry $3.29 billion in emergency loans Saturday. The announcement follows a pledge Friday by President George W. Bush to offer $17.4 billion in emergency loans to the U.S. auto industry. "I will not fool you," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters in Toronto. "There is obviously money at risk here, and there may well be more money at risk going forward."

TORONTO -- The Ontario coroner's office said Thursday that three more deaths were being investigated for links to an E. coli contamination that has killed at least seven people and sickened hundreds more. The three deaths under investigation occurred from May 5 to May 19, before authorities issued a warning and told residents of Walkerton to boil their water. Some 14 deaths are now being studied. The contamination was the worst-known E. coli outbreak in North America.

In a flashback to the gold-rush era, hundreds of prospectors from across North America raced into a 2,300-square-mile tract of Ontario wilderness Tuesday, 250 miles north of Toronto. They were staking claims to mineral rights in an area that had been off-limits for 23 years. Some mining companies hired helicopters to drop prospectors into the bush and bogs. Up for grabs were the rights to dig for gold, copper, zinc, diamonds and other minerals.

The Dolphins and the Bills will likely play in front of an enthusiastic and knowledgeable crowd in Toronto on Sunday because football is thriving in Canada. The Canadian Football League has the third-highest average attendance of any league in North America, and a recent university survey showed that 13 percent of the Canadian population follows the NFL. Already, Canada has contributed much to the NFL, and vice versa. Notable Canadians who played in the NFL Mike Vanderjagt, K: Peyton Manning called the Ontario product an "idiot," but he was the NFL's all-time most accurate kicker for a while.

BRAMPTON, ONTARIO -- A Canadian man accused of participating in military exercises and firearms training as part of a group authorities say plotted to storm Parliament and behead the prime minister was found guilty Thursday. The man is the first person to be found guilty of a terrorist offense in Canada since the country enacted anti-terrorism laws in 2001. The man has not been identified because he was 17 when he was arrested in 2006. He now is 20. The arrests of the 18 group members, known as the "Toronto 18," made headlines around the world.